When the silhouette of the Leo Ducal Estate appeared around the corner of the street, Ethan paused for a moment.
On both sides of the flagstone road in front of the main castle, fully armed guards stood every three paces, the Thorn Crest on their breastplates glinting coldly in the midday sun.
The guards held their spears with the tips pointing upward, standing tall and straight, yet their expressions betrayed an indescribable tension.
By the stables on the left side of the estate, twelve Knights in full armor held the reins of their warhorses. The horses' hooves pawed restlessly at the ground, snorting thick plumes of white vapor.
Behind the flowerbeds on the right, archers leaned against a low wall, the feathered arrows in their quivers neatly arranged. Their bowstrings were half-drawn, ready to be pulled taut at a moment's notice.
The main castle gates were tightly shut. Two newly erected barricades sat on the steps in front of the entrance, their sharp wooden spikes pointing outward, still glistening with dew.
Just as Ethan stepped onto the flagstone road, still thirty paces from the gate, the two guards in the very front row simultaneously tightened their grip on their spears.
One of them parted his lips to speak, but before he could utter a word, an older, veteran guard next to him slapped him hard on the back of the head.
“Where are your eyes? Look at the Thorn Crest!”
Clutching the back of his head, the young soldier squinted to get a closer look. The tension on his face instantly melted into sheer panic.
He scrambled to step aside, the butt of his spear clattering sharply against the ground.
Several guards scrambled to drag the barricades away, the wooden spikes scraping against the flagstones with a grating screech. The heavy gates were pushed open from the inside, the hinges groaning deeply.
Old Ford walked out briskly from within. “Young Master, you're back. This is...”
As soon as Ford spoke, his gaze swept over the fully armed guards and Knights surrounding the estate, his lips trembling as he tried to explain.
Ethan waved his hand.
“Dismiss them all. I know what happened. Everything is fine now.”
Ford's words caught in his throat. He looked up, his gaze lingering on Ethan's face for a brief moment before he lowered his eyes and bowed slightly.
“Yes, Young Master.”
He turned around and made a subtle gesture to the surrounding troops. Though the movement was small, the guards and Knights sprang into action immediately.
The barricades were dragged back, the archers stood up from behind the low wall, the Knights dismounted, and the guards reformed their ranks, withdrawing from both sides of the flagstone road back inside the gates.
Ethan crossed the flagstone road of the forecourt and stepped onto the stairs of the main castle.
Inside the main hall, Duke Leo and the Duchess were standing in front of the fireplace.
The Duke's brow was furrowed into a tight knot, his fingers absentmindedly stroking the rim of his pipe.
The Duchess sat in an armchair nearby, her hands folded in her lap, her forehead creased with worry.
Hearing footsteps, both of them looked up at the same time.
“Ethan.” The Duchess stood up, quickly walking over to him. She grabbed his arms, her eyes scanning him rapidly. “Are you all right?”
“I'm fine, Mother,” Ethan replied in a calm tone. “It was just a minor issue.”
Duke Leo set down his pipe, his gaze locking onto Ethan's face. “That... phenomenon. Was it related to you?”
“Yes.” Ethan nodded, offering no further explanation. “The crisis in the Imperial City has been resolved.”
Duke Leo fell silent for a few seconds before nodding. He did not press further.
When his son had left ten years ago, he had understood that there were some things he simply shouldn't ask.
The Duchess, however, was not so easily appeased.
She pulled Ethan down to sit in a chair, inspecting him from head to toe several more times. Her lips parted repeatedly as she wanted to ask what on earth he had experienced, having been gone for so long today only to return silently just now.
“That's enough,” Duke Leo said, sitting back in his chair and relighting his pipe. “Since he's fine, let's not just stand around. Have the kitchen serve dinner early. We should have a proper family meal today.”
The Duchess nodded, leaving to instruct the servants.
She wanted to personally oversee what her son would eat.
Even if she still had so much more she wanted to say.
...
Ethan sat at his desk, lining up the eight knowledge crystals in a row on the tabletop.
The sunlight outside was just right, filtering through the leaves of a potted foliage plant on the windowsill and casting dappled green shadows across the desk.
He picked up the first one.
Thousand Vines Blood Burial.
The moment his mental power penetrated the crystal, a torrent of information flooded his consciousness.
【Wizardry Model: Thousand Vines Blood Burial】
【Level: Second-Tier spell】
【Attribute: Wood】
【Base Power: 120,000 degrees】
【Casting Time: 18 seconds】
【Effect: Summons a massive quantity of toxic blood vines within a 300-meter radius. The blood vines automatically lock onto and attack all living things within range, binding, crushing, and absorbing their blood and life force, returning 30% of the total absorbed amount to the caster. The blood vines can exist for a maximum of 3 hours, during which new vines can be grown by continuously injecting mana. The blood vines themselves are extremely resilient; a single vine can withstand 20,000 degrees of damage. Targets strangled to death by the blood vines will have their flesh devoured directly, converting it into energy to sustain the vines' existence.】
The model structure unfolding within his mental sea far exceeded his expectations.
Forty-seven thousand mental power incisions, with each incision's depth, angle, and curvature requiring a level of precision that was utterly outrageous.
These incisions were connected by three hundred and twenty energy nodes, forming a set of nested energy circuits.
He could memorize the position of a single incision, yet he was completely unable to comprehend why it had to be placed at those exact coordinates.
It involved at least six areas of advanced knowledge he had never encountered before—the stability algorithm of the energy circuits, the automatic lock-on mechanism of the blood vines, and the conversion formula for life force feedback. Each one would require a long period of study to master.
He set down the crystal and picked up the second one.
【Wizardry Model: Azure Wood Dragon Scale】
【Level: Second-Tier spell】
【Attribute: Wood】
【Base Defense: 80,000 degrees】
【Casting Time: 12 seconds】
【Effect: Condenses dragon-scale-like wooden plates on the body's surface, with the plates connected by highly resilient vines. When under attack, the plates automatically adjust their density and alignment, dispersing the impact force across all plates to be shared collectively. It can withstand physical, energy, and mental attacks. It lasts for 2 hours, during which damaged plates can be repaired by injecting mana. The defensive power of the plates increases with the caster's wood-element affinity.】
The number of incisions in this model was slightly fewer than that of Thousand Vines Blood Burial, totaling just over thirty-two thousand.
The difficulty lay not in the quantity, but in the arrangement.
The arrangement of the dragon-scale plates was not a fixed structure, but rather a dynamic adjustment system. It required the caster to simultaneously maintain a continuously running energy distribution algorithm upon casting.
This involved multi-dimensional energy flow control theory. With his current knowledge reserves, he could only understand up to the fourth dimension, while this algorithm required at least the seventh dimension.
The third one.
【Wizardry Model: Decay and Flourish Domain】
【Level: Second-Tier spell】
【Attribute: Wood】
【Base Power: No direct offensive power】
【Casting Time: 25 seconds】
【Effect: Expands a domain space with a 100-meter radius centered on the caster. Within the domain, the growth rate of all wood-attribute plants is increased by 100 times, and the life force of all non-wood-attribute living things is continuously drained at a rate of 0.5 degrees per second. The duration and range of the domain expand with the growth of mental power, with a base duration of 1 hour. Within the domain, the power of all the caster's wood-attribute spells is increased by 30%, and casting speed is increased by 20%.】
This one was even harder.
The domain maintenance algorithm.
This was the core of the Decay and Flourish Domain, and it was also the part he completely failed to comprehend.
How to continuously drain life force within a hundred-meter radius, and how to convert this massive amount of life energy into a form that he could absorb himself...
At the same time, he also had to process the information perception at the domain's boundaries, as the domain would automatically identify the attributes of all living things within its range and process them accordingly.
The energy conversion efficiency, the maintenance logic of the domain's boundaries, and the safety thresholds of the feedback loop involved—every single concept was a textbook's worth of content on its own.
At his current level, these were simply impossible to achieve.
Rate on N.U.
